Some users of a photocopier or scanner might encounter difficulties orienting an original document or picture on the device, in that conventional device designs are predicated on the user, as the reader or viewer of what they photocopy or scan, being able to visually confirm the document's or picture's orientation just as they can read or view the photocopied or scanned document or picture without visual-assisting enhancement. Yet visually impaired persons may not be the reader or viewer of what they photocopy or scan; for example, they may need to make or scan a copy of some official document for an administrative purpose, or may desire to make or scan a copy of a picture to share with friends or family. Or visually impaired persons may need to make a document or picture photocopy or scanned copy that assists them with a viewing impairment that itself makes using the photocopier or scanner difficult for them. That is, a visually impaired person may for example wish to take advantage of the magnifying capabilities of a photocopier or scanner—or a multifunction peripheral (MFP) capable of photocopying and scanning as well as other functions—to enlarge a given document or picture such as to make the document or picture readable or viewable to that person. In operating a photocopier, scanner, or MFP, however, such users may come up against difficulties in orienting the document or picture on the machine. Such users may be particularly inconvenienced in trying to place, as a document, a book or magazine in proper position on the machine.
In photocopiers, scanners, and MFPs (“image-forming devices” hereinafter), the scanning both for print-reproducing a document or picture, and for producing as image data a scanned copy of the document or picture is optical, via a light source and associated scanning optics, and a document-retaining table in the image-forming device containing a rectangular plate that is transparent, usually of glass, known as a platen. The light source and associated scanning optics operate beneath the transparent platen to scan the document or picture situated face-down on the platen. The entirety of the document-retaining table is not occupied by the platen; a nontransparent frame with sides of a given width holds the platen. The contrast between the transparency of the platen and the opacity of the frame provides a visual guide to orienting a document on the platen.
The image-forming device translates the scanning optics rectangularly, i.e., relative to the x- and y-axes of the platen. Correctly oriented reproduction therefore requires correctly orienting the document or picture relative to the platen. Thus, in placing a document or picture on the document-retaining table and orienting it on the platen, a visually impaired user could have difficulty not only in locating the platen relative to the surrounding frame, but more critically, in two-dimensionally situating the document in the x- and y-axis orientations of the platen.
Image-forming devices with features designed to assist visually impaired users are known. For example, machines that provide voice guidance, as well as that allow a user to execute certain functions of the machine via voice-actuated control are known. Image-forming devices that convert scanned text to audio data are known, but such technology presumes that the scanning is carried out on a document that is correctly oriented on the platen—such audio data of course does not assist in placing the document on the document-retaining table. And an image-forming device that automatically switches between single-sided and double-sided copying/scanning modes to assist visually impaired users has been proposed. That is, visually-dependent, manual switching between single-/double-sided copying modes is rendered unnecessary by enabling the machine to decide automatedly, through a stack of sheets constituting an original document, between single-sided and double-sided copying/scanning by detecting whether a current sheet side is blank.
Such sheet-stack scanning is carried out via an automatic document feeder (ADF) that feeds the document into scanning position on the platen, meaning that the document in its entirety is set onto the ADF feeder tray. While it may be easier for a visually impaired person to place a document on an ADF feeder tray than to situate a document on a platen, ADF use is essentially limited to documents constituted by a uniform stack of sheets. Books of course are out of the question. Even if otherwise the ADF is used for single-sheet document feeding, the single sheet still must be carefully placed on the feeder tray. And if the document is odd-sized or of a size different from the document last fed through the ADF, the adjustable sheet guides flanking the feeder tray must be repositioned. These difficulties mean that a visually impaired person is unlikely to employ an ADF except in extremely limited cases.
What is needed, then, is an imaging-device document-retaining table and associated scheme to assist visually impaired users in situating an original document on the document-retaining table.